In Time, Out of Place

by You Jin

  “You know, the wild elephant is much more dangerous than the lion,” Susan explained, seemingly still very affected by that experience. “When you meet a lion, all you have to do is hold your breath, and keep totally still and it won’t mess with you without being provoked. Of course, if you panic and try to run, it will come after you and tear you to bits. Elephants can look very peaceable, but they are actually very brutal in nature, and have an ominous potential. Chasing and trampling people is common behaviour to them. Once, one used its trunk to encircle a tourist, picking her up, and then smashing her down onto the ground. When the doctor came and examined the body of this victim who died a tragic death, he said there was not a single bone in her that had not been cracked or broken.”

  Susan’s favourite thing was to see the gazelles and the sika deer roaming freely through the campground near her cabin.

  “It gives me the feeling of a family existing peacefully together,” she said, smiling.

  In order to attract these animals, she had dug watering holes all around the encampment, giving them a place to quench their thirst.

  During the three days we stayed in Kruger National Park Animal Reserve, Susan organised day trips and night trips for us. Each one lasted four hours.

  Susan said that, since the place was vast and the animals’ whereabouts unpredictable, what sights or animals one could see depended on one’s luck. Generally, it was most difficult to spot lions and leopards. One guest had stayed for ten days without seeing a hint of a lion.

  As we talked, the young man who had brought us into the park came in carrying a long rifle. His curls were cut very short, resting playfully on his head, golden under the evening sun. Beneath his long eyelashes were brown energetic eyes, full of laughter. Looking at us, he grinned, showing teeth like a rabbit’s, and said, “My name is Carl. I’ll be your jungle guide for the next few days. Now, are you ready? We can set out.”

  Outside the camp, there was an open-top military jeep. I had not imagined that we would be riding this sort of “naked” vehicle to go out and see the wild animals.

  Carl could see my misgivings. He patted his rifle and said, “Don’t worry. We’ve got protection.”

  An indigenous man called Kawsu set out with us. He carried a torch and sat in the front passenger seat.

  Night settled quickly over the jungle, making it very dark. When we set out, the shy setting sun still had some rosiness left on her face, but before we had travelled far, the whole land was enveloped in fuzzy shadows. Not long after that, the whole jungle was plunged into total eerie darkness.

  Kawsu turned on his torch, letting it rove nonstop in all directions, his head also swivelling around tirelessly, as he alertly observed the area all around us. His round eyes were exceptionally bright and sharp. Even though there was no breeze and the grass did not rustle, he knew the silent movements of the jungle. Every time he let his torch settle on a specific spot, Carl would also stop the car quickly. Then, we would see an amazing sight before us.

  Once it was a herd of lively deer on a night tour. Their cunning eyes sparkled like diamonds in the light of the torch. It was a lovely sight.

  And there was an elephant, quietly enjoying a late supper. We watched as it used its trunk to tear off leaves from a tree, putting them in its mouth and munching on them.

  We also saw four rhinos, moving in a row. They seemed to be helping each other slowly make their way home.

  It was a starless, moonless night, so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. As the vehicle bumped and bounced, and climbed through the jungle, there were wild beast cries all around, constantly assaulting our ears and creating an increasingly eerie atmosphere.

  Suddenly, the light stopped. The jeep also halted. Carl said softly, “Look.”

  In the circle of light was a pool. Two huge, powerful crocodiles were struggling up the bank.

  The car started moving again, bringing us to a safe high point. Carl switched off the engine. We were stopping for some refreshments. Kawsu opened a thermal chest and poured us some coffee. As I sipped my cup, I praised him: “You really have sharp eyes. Like magic!”

  “Not at all!” he said. “For three years, I underwent formal training which combined theory and practice. Then I’ve got twelve years of work experience on top of that. Practice makes perfect.”

  The training Kawsu had received included studying the particular habits of the animals, learning and recognising the jungle paths, and practising defence and resistance. In addition, he had to live in the jungle for a long time and practise shooting and hunting.

  “When most people look at things, they only see the surface, but my training taught me to look several layers deeper. For example, in the jungle at night, most people will just vaguely see the shadows of trees, but I look beyond the trees for the quiet moments behind them. It’s the same with the lakes and ponds. Most people will notice ripples on its surface, but I can see from the movement of the water what danger lurks beneath.”

  Talking about the hazards of the jungle, contrary to what I expected, the thing Kawsu most feared was not the animal that made everyone shudder with its mere mention, the lion, but the gentle-looking water buffalo.

  “When a buffalo appears alone, it is a formidable attacker. If it charges a person, it comes with deadly force. What is most frightening is that it can go crazy for no reason at all and take the offensive. Its weak point is that when it is charging a person, it habitually shuts its eyes tightly, so if you see it heading for you like a whirlwind, you can calmly step aside and avoid it. When it’s made several passes, it will be tired, too weak to continue, and you can get away easily then.”

  After our refreshments, we continued our night tour, but we did not have much luck. By the time we returned to camp, it was already nine.

  Inside the thatched hut, candles had already been lit and a long table laid out for dinner. Outside the hut there was a campfire, and the smell of roasting beef wafted on the air. Dinner was very elaborate. The appetiser was a rich beef liver pâté, and the main course was beefsteak, medium rare, with pumpkin spread, potatoes, buttered mushrooms and salad. For desert we had fresh African fruits: bananas, pineapples and tangerines.

  I sipped my red wine as I chatted amicably with Carl. He was from Johannesburg and had majored in Preservation of Natural Resources. After graduation, he had stayed in the city to work, but living within the rules and boundaries set by others left him feeling stifled, as if he was living in a cell without walls. After a year, he couldn’t stand it anymore, so he left the city and went into the jungle.

  “The feeling of going back to nature was fantastic. For many people, going into the jungle makes them feel lost, but for me, the jungle—whether it is a small path or a muddy trail, and whether it is a lake or a pool or a watering hole—it is all unique to me. When I’ve walked through, or seen it once, I can identify and remember it.”

  Carl seemed born for life in the jungle. Talking of his feelings about his work, his eyes glowed with pleasure.

  “Each time I lead tourists out, there is some new discovery, something new to enjoy. You can say that there is always something surprising lurking in every corner of the jungle at every moment, waiting to be discovered, to be revealed.”

  The next morning, we woke to the sound of drums in the distance. At first, I thought I was dreaming, but the rhythmic drumming sounds kept getting sharper and louder. In the cold, I put on more clothes and sat up and listened carefully, and I found that the stimulating sound was coming from somewhere not far from our camp.

  I looked at the clock. It was four in the morning.

  Oh! It was the best time for the morning tour!

  After getting ready, Risheng and I hopped into Carl’s jeep. He quickly started up the engine and drove into the jungle.

  At first, there was nothing but trees and more trees, nothing much to see. But when the vehicle turned from the narrow path to a bigger road, a huge open grassy clearing appeared. I exclaimed i
n surprise. “Oh!”

  There were dozens of little deer running nimbly across the feathery green grass. In the light of the rising sun, they looked like, bouncing, golden musical notes.

  When the vehicle had travelled a short distance, we saw several great African gazelles traversing the plain, with a white circle on the rump of each one. Carl laughed and said, “When these gazelles went to the toilet, they weren’t careful, and sat on toilets with bleach that had not dried, leaving a ridiculous stain on their fur!”

  We were still laughing at this joke when Carl suddenly stopped the car and got down. Our startled eyes watched him as he pointed at claw marks on the ground. “A lion’s footprints.”

  A lion! Fearful excitement prickled all over me.

  Carl leapt back into the car and said, “I’ll have to follow the trail left by the lion. Lions most hate to be disturbed, so when you see it, you must stay calmly in the jeep and don’t move. Last year, there were two tourists who got so excited when they saw a lion lying on the ground that they forgot all about safety. They jumped out of the car and started snapping pictures. The lion immediately leapt up and rushed over, mauling them. Both were killed on the spot.”

  When he said this, goosebumps popped up all over me.

  The jeep crawled along, following the lion’s trail, but my heart raced as I looked around. I felt hope mingled with fear, fear mingled with desire, and desire mingled with anxiety. It was extremely thrilling. I really wanted to see a ferocious lion, but I ended up with a feeling like wanting to meet my first love. It was strangely inappropriate, and yet wonderful.

  All of a sudden, the car slowed down even more. It went slower and slower, until finally it stopped.

  Everything was very still, only the wind, vaguely and intermittently, let out a sad howl.

  Three huge lions sat about thirty metres from us. The two males were eating a freshly killed gazelle, chewing with gusto. The female sat on one side, watching and drooling.

  “A lion with something to eat is a safe lion,” Carl said softly, starting to move the car once again, creeping nearer to the lions. This is too daring a move, I thought, horror-stricken. The audacious Carl slowly inched the vehicle closer. I could hardly breathe, and my heart almost stopped beating. Finally, the car was less than ten metres from the lions. I could see each hair on their bodies very clearly.

  In unison, the three lions raised their heads and faced our vehicle. Then the hungry female turned toward the prey and reached out to take a bite. Unexpectedly, the two males started to roar at her fiercely. Their roars shook the slopes, even rattling the jeep. I was so scared my face turned white and my hair stood on end. I just wanted to abandon the car and escape. In this moment of imminent peril, Risheng, who held a camera in his hand, didn’t want to let this golden opportunity slip past, so he suddenly stood up and snap! Carl’s face lost all colour and in a flash, he reached up and pulled Risheng down. In a low voice, he said anxiously, “Whatever you do, don’t stand up! Don’t you know the lions think of the whole car as one strange object? Even though we have no protection all around us, we are safe. If you stand, the lions will see a human figure. When you add to that the fact that you keep moving to snap the photos, they’ll think that you want to attack them. For their own safety, they’ll charge together.”

  Carl kept his voice very low as he continued. “Lions living in the jungle most like to eat zebras, with gazelles being a close second. Only the old, thin lions who are no longer able to kill the animals mentioned will feel tempted when they see the physically feeble humans.”

  The lion world is patriarchal; after they hunt their prey, the males eat first, and only when they have had their fill do the females eat. No wonder the males had just kicked up a fuss when the female “cut queue”. Male lions usually live to the age of ten or twelve, and they often fight amongst themselves over territory, power, or the opposite sex. Sometimes, out of jealousy, they even kill the young cubs the females bear.

  The two male lions in front of me ate with gusto, savouring their meal. The female sat obediently, quietly watching, her round lion eyes filled with heartbreaking longing. Then Carl pointed and whispered, “Hey, look!”

  From another part of the jungle, two more lions were slinking out. Carl watched carefully, then suddenly went into action, quickly driving away. As he gave the steering wheel a spirited turn, he said, “Those two lions had a fierce look in their eyes, and their tails were rigid. I’m afraid they’re up to no good.” He paused, then added, “Those of us in this line have to watch our every step and be careful in everything, because none of the beasts we meet is tame. Though I am familiar with the ways of all the animals, their temperament is not one hundred per cent predictable. When you happen upon them in a bad mood, if you aren’t alert enough, that’s it. So, we have to keep our eyes and ears open, and not just in a lazy or casual way. We always have to be alert and vigilant.”

  I remained submerged in an extraordinary combination of and excitement, and Carl seemed to feel the same way, as he said cheerfully, “Your luck is pretty good. Only two days and you’ve seen the king of the jungle. Some people stay for a whole week without even a glimpse! Of course, it’s not all luck. The weather also plays a part. Today, it is cool and overcast, and the lions will wander about, so the chances of meeting them are higher. Usually it’s too hot, and they like to rest deep in the jungle, so there’s not much likelihood of encountering them.”

  As he said this, we came across an entire pride of lions lying beneath a grove of trees.

  Carl once again made the same move, creeping closer to the lions. I could hear my pulse pounding in my ears and feel the blood turn to ice in my veins. My palms were sweaty, and my legs would not stop shaking. Then, from the left, right, in front, and back, came one lion after another, leisurely strolling towards us. In no time, our vehicle was surrounded by the pack of lions. I looked anxiously at the rifle in the jeep. No one said anything. The bloody picture of being mauled by a lion kept flashing through my mind. Frankly speaking, at that moment, I wanted to turn into a wisp of smoke, and fly away, disappear, escape. After about twenty minutes, a gap opened in the circle, and Carl put the car into gear and slowly drove away. We watched the lions disappear into the distance. Whilst we all felt a sense of relief, our hearts also felt a sort of regret that the experience was over.

  When we got back to camp, the aromatic smell of breakfast greeted us. It was, again, amazingly sumptuous: cereal, ham, sausage, fried eggs, fried pumpkin rolls, corn mash, bread, fruit, juice, and coffee spread out on the table.

  We were starving, and we ate like a gale, sweeping clean the “fallen leaves” on the table. Afterward, we sat contentedly on the wooden chairs beneath the trees and chatted with Susan. We talked about the current public safety situation in South Africa, and with a heavy heart, Susan pointed out that violence had become a part of life in South Africa. Everyone carried guns for defence. As we talked on, her mouth turned up in a rueful smile. “My friends all thought I was crazy when I was planning to move to the jungle permanently. But to tell the truth, thinking about how much violence there is in the big cities in South Africa, the jungle is actually a very safe place.” At this point, her rueful smile turned to moving tenderness. “You know, once, when I got up in the morning and looked out at the sunrise, I saw seven huge lions circling my wooden hut. Their sort of intimate dependency showed me the peaceful side of wild animals. We looked at each other through the window, and there was a harmonious quiet communication flowing between us. What do you think? If it were seven gangsters outside my window instead of seven lions, would I still be alive to sit here comfortably chatting with you now?”

  Amid sighs and regret, we ended our conversation, rested a little, then loaded up the jeep to go touring in the jungle again. On a small path, we saw a group of graceful giraffes. Counting carefully, we spotted nine of them, walking elegantly, and cheerfully displaying the splendid spots on their bodies. They suddenly made me think of models strutting thei
r stuff on a fashion show catwalk.

  We saw a herd of zebras practically flying across the plain. The black striped patterns on their bodies created a dizzying effect. We also saw many other lively animals: rhinos, water buffaloes, elephants, gazelles and antelopes. All were magnificent.

  Whilst we were busy devouring the animals with our greedy eyes, we heard Carl cry excitedly, “Oh! A leopard!”

  Before he even finished saying it, I saw the body of a leopard, covered all over with spots, flash across us. Carl revved his engine, rushing towards the direction where the leopard had disappeared. The jeep drove into the bushes, forwards, backwards, turned right, left, took down a small tree, rolled over thorny bushes, flew over muddy holes, across streams, spirited, speedy, cruel, and decisive.

  The leopard was nowhere to be seen. Carl sadly gave up the chase, slowed the jeep down and said, “Sorry I couldn’t keep up. Such a waste! The leopards are shy, and they usually like to lie deep in the forest. They rarely show themselves. It’s very hard to see one, and this one got away.”

  I asked, “Just now, we gave chase so vigorously. If you were to catch up with it, would it attack?”

  “Generally, when it is a solitary leopard, it is not very bold, but if a cub is there, it can become extremely dangerous because it is not only quick, it can also climb trees, and is very strong. I have seen with my own eyes a leopard drag a fifty or sixty kilo gazelle in its mouth up a tree to eat.”

  When we got back to camp, we had a wonderful dinner, followed by a good night’s sleep.

  The next morning, we woke up to drumbeats at four again. It was drizzling outside, and a romantic feeling crept into my heart.

  Carl drove us to the place where the lions had been seen the previous day to see whether they were still there. From his experience, he knew that when lions had killed their prey, if they could not finish it in one day, they would stay in the same spot and keep feeding. For instance, once the lions had killed a water buffalo, and remained there feeding for three days. During those three days, Carl brought tourists back to that spot and they saw the lions guarding the prey.